View source for Help:Using the TRU Wiki for Course Work

__NOEDITSECTION__{{Help Nav}}The Kumu Wiki is an excellent tool for managing, creating, and sharing course content.  You can use it for a wide range of activities: from creating a central repository of course info to hosting online student discussions.  The possibilities are endless and how you use the Wiki is really up to you.

==Organizing your Course Content== 

One of the most important steps when using the Kumu Wiki is organizing your content within the Wiki. There are three basic levels of organization that all course pages should meet:

====First, Put Your Course Pages into the Course Space====
Make sure your course work is in proper space.  The Kumu Wiki is organized into different [[help:namespaces|spaces]]; course work fits best into the [[Course]] space.  

Putting course pages into the [[Course]] space keeps the UBC Wiki organized and structured.  For example, if you create a page entitled "Student Assignments" and it is in the main space on the wiki, users of the wiki will think that it is a general knowledge article on the topic of student assignments at UBC and not something that relates specifically to your course.  

'''''Please note''''': if you create course pages that are not located in the Course space, we may move your pages into the Course space for you.

====Second, Use Your Course Number====

Another good practice when creating course pages is to organize the pages by the course number.  For example, if you create a page entitled "Course:Student Assignments", it is not clear to which course the student assignment page belongs.  Instead Course:ABCD123/Student Assignments shows that the student assignment page belongs to course ABCD123.  

====Finally, Use Subpages to Keep Course Pages Together====

We suggest that every course have a main page and that this main page be the course number.  The main page for the example course ABCD123 would be Course:ABCD123.  Additional content can then be added as [[help:subpages|subpages]].  To create a subpage for a course page, put a forward slash '/' after the course name and type in the name for that subpage. For example, a subpage for the course ABCD123, would follow this pattern: Course:ABD123/subpage.  Subpages automatically create links to their parent pages.

==Examples of Course Organization==

Here are some ideas on how you could setup your course:

{| class="wikitable" 
!width="60%"|Course Name (URL)
!width="40%"|Description
|-
|<nowiki>kumu.tru.ca/Course:ABCD123/ </nowiki>
|Your course homepage, please keep it up to date with the contact info, registration information and other important information.
|-
|kumu.tru.ca/Course:ABCD123/2015WT1/  
|The course homepage for 2015, Winter Term 1. If you plan to keep and differentiate information for the course over different terms it might make sense to have separate subpages for different terms.  
|-
|kumu.tru.ca/Course:ABCD123/2015WT1/Course_Notes 
|Your course notes could go here; please use subpages to separate different content 
|-
|kumu.tru.ca/Course:ABCD123/2015WT1/Course_Notes/Unit1 
|Typical lecture notes
|-
|kumu.tru.ca/Course:ABCD123/2015WT1/Student_Activities
|section of your course where students contribute, write assignments, etc...
|-
|kumu.tru.ca/Course:ABCD123/2015WT1/Student_Activities/Assignment_1/John_Doe 
| John Doe's first Assignment
|-
|kumu.tru.ca/Course:ABCD123/2015WT1/Student_Activities/Assignment_1/Jane_Smith
| Jane Smith's first Assignment
|}

Please visit [[Course:ABCD123]] to see how the above organizational examples work.

{{Create_Course_Page_Box}}

==Using Categories==

[[Help:Categories|Categories]] can help you keep all pages related to your course together as well as make the course findable in larger contexts. For example, if you are teaching class ABCD123, you might want to create a category called ABC123 and add every course page to that category.  You can do this by adding the following code to your pages: <nowiki>[[Category:ABCD123]]</nowiki>.  

You can also add your course to broader categories.  For example, if course ABCD123 were an economics class, adding the main page to the [[:category:economics|economics category]] will help create a broader picture of all physics topics at TRU as well as make your course easier to find.

If you categorize the top level page of your course with it's four letter subject code, it will be automatically added to the [[Course#Course_Space_Contents|course space index]].  For example, the category <nowiki>[[Category:MATH]]</nowiki> has been added to the top level page for the [[Course:MATH110| Math 110]] course.

See [[Help: Categories]] for more information.

==Using Dynamic Page Lists (DPL)==
In its most basic form, the [[Help:Dynamic Page Lists|Dynamic Page Lists]] (DPL) function displays a list of pages in one or more categories or subpages.  This could be useful to organizing course content if you want to display all the pages or subpages that relate to your course. 

===Listing subpages===
Copy the following code and put it in the body of a page (such as your main course page) to list all the subpages of that specific subpage (please note that if the page on which the below code has been placed has no subpages, an error will be generated). See [[Help:Dynamic Page Lists]] for more information.
<pre>
<dpl>
titlematch={{PAGENAME}}/%
namespace={{NAMESPACE}}
shownamespace=false
</dpl>
</pre>

===Listing categories===
Copy the following code and put it in the body to list all the categories.
<pre>
<dpl>
category= categoryname
</dpl>
</pre>

Categoryname is a placeholder for whatever category you wish to list.

See [[Help:Dynamic Page Lists]] for more information.

== Copyrighted Material ==
Only upload materials that you own the copyright to or have permission to share.

== Additional Resources ==
*[http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/ 50 Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom]
*[http://ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html Teaching and learning online with wikis]
*[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.113.7307&rep=rep1&type=pdf Wikis and Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool]
*[http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/rubrics/wikirubric.html Ruberic for Wiki Work] 

First draft of this page derived from: http://wiki.ubc.ca/Help:Using_the_UBC_Wiki_for_Course_Work

[[Category:help]][[Category:Course space]]